f/>rU 





THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 



A MEMORIAL DISCOURSE, 



DELIVEKED IN THE 



Bntan Bajjtifjt ^Iturch, ®lest |hilHdcIphia, 



ON SUNDAY, APRIL 16th, 1865, 



Y THE PASTOR, 



Rev. JAMES COOPER. 




PHILADELPHIA: 

.TAS. B. JiODGERS, PRINTER, 52 AND 54 NORTH SIXTH STREKT. 
1 8 () 5 . 




THE DEATH OF PEESIDENT LINCOLN. 



A MEMORIAL DISCOURSE, 



DELIVERED IN THE 



\mm\ Saptirjt iSfimh, Wt^t fWIaMpWa, 



ON SUNDAY, APRIL 16th, 1865, 



BY THE PASTOR, 



Rev. JAMES COOPER. 




PHILADELPHIA: 

JAS. B. RODGERS, PRINTER, 52 AND 54 NORTH SIXTH STREET. 
1865. 



&9 



Philadblphia, April 19th, 1S65. 
Bev. James Cooper: 

Respected Sir — Having listened with great satisfaction to your discourse, on last Sabbath 
morning, the 16th inst., on the assassination of our lamented President, Abraham Lincoln, 
you would confer a great favor by loaning us the manuscript for publication. 
Bespectfully your friends, 

JOHN P. LEVY, 
HENRY H. ENGLISH, 
SAMUEL APPLETON, 
J. H. JOHNSON, 
WM. P. De SANNO, 
WM. RUSSELL, 



J. A. GENDELL, 
J. C. PAYNTER, 
C. C. ROBERTS, 
W. ELWOOD ROWAN, 
EDWARD H. PUGH, 
S. T. ALTEMUS. 



Philadelphia, April 24th, 1865. 

To JOHN P. LEVY, HENRY H. ENGLISH, and others. 

Gentlemen — Your note of the 19th inst., in which you speak bo kindly of the discourse 
delivered on the Sabbath morning preceding, has been received. 

I cheerfully submit the manuscript, as you desire, for publication. 

With affectionate esteem, 

Yours very truly, 

JAMES COOPEB. 



A MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 



2 Samuel i. 19 — "The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: 
how are the mighty fallen!" 

The history of the civil war which for four years 
has convulsed this land has been remarkable for the 
frequent and sudden alternations of feeling in the 
public mind. From deep despondency to highest 
exultation, from an all-pervading gloom to an all-en- 
veloping brightness of public sentiment; from dark- 
ness to light and from light to darkness, from the sor- 
row of defeat to the joy of victory, and from the joy 
of victory to the sorrow of defeat, the transitions have 
been rapid and abrupt. 

The profound gloom and misgiving of the people 
during the never to be forgotten months which pre- 
ceded the bombardment and fall of Fort Sumter, were 
suddenly dispelled by that attempt of frenzied men to 
dishonor the symbol of American nationality, and the 
spectacle was presented to the world of twenty mil- 
lions of people aroused to the highest degree of enthu- 



6 THE DEATH OF 

siasm, and impelled by the spirit of a sublime pa- 
triotism to heroic deeds for its vindication. 

From a state of self-reliant and boastful security we 
were plunged at once into an abyss of horror and of 
grief by the disastrous results of the first great conflict 
which raged almost in sight of the nation's capitol. 
No less sudden was the recovery from the disappoint- 
ment of defeat to a more intelligent, and firmer reso- 
lution to make still greater sacrifices for the Republic. 

The rapidity with which events have changed, is 
singularly illustrated by the diverse efiects which have 
been produced in the minds of foreigners. Separated 
from us by the great sea, they have been removed 
from the excitements and confusions in which we have 
daily lived, and they have viewed the events trans- 
piring here in the aggregate, and not as we have, in 
many and contradictory particulars. The tidings of 
one week, which have given grief to our friends and 
joy to our enemies abroad, have been followed in the 
succeeding week by other tidings, which have given 
joy to friends and grief to enemies. 

The ebb and flow of the tides which have laved 
foreign shores, have been scarcely more regular in 
their movements than the ebb and flow — the fall and 
rise of public feeling in foreign lands consequent upon 
the almost periodical changes of events with us. 

But remarkable as the alternation of events — of 
good and evil — fluctuating as the feelings of the peo- 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 7 

pie have been during the past four years, none bear 
any comparison in suddenness and Tearfulness, and in 
the revulsion of feeling experienced, with what has 
transpired during the past few hours. 

When the sun, which all the day long had poured 
forth its wealth of light and glory over the land, and 
bathed with its fiery flood the starry banner waving 
in every breeze, went down on Friday night, its last 
lingering beams rested upon a joyous people. All 
hearts were filled with gladness, and every tongue was 
vocal with praise. The morning dawned — the nation 
was in tears, and draping itself in the habiliments of 
mourning. Suddenly, as if the sun at noon-day were 
eclipsed, a horror of great darkness fell upon lis. The 
idol of our hearts — the strong stafi" of our confiding 
trust — the Patriot — the Statesman of tried worth — 
our honored Chief Magistrate was no more. 

The glory of American Israel is slain upon our 
high places : how is the mighty fallen ! 

From whatever point of view we contemplate this 
event — whether we regard the joyous and congratu- 
latory scenes from the midst of which he was violently 
removed, or regard the time and the manner of his 
death — it is a most afflictive dispensation. That in 
the hour of signal triumph to our arms — on the very 
day, when, with commemorative services, the na- 
tional colors were again unfurled over the same his- 
toric place where four years before they had been 



8 THE DEATH OF 

lowered — that at the close of the first great stage of 
the national struggle — at a time when the future was 
bright with signs of final and complete success, and 
presaged the return of peace and prosperity, that at 
such a time the President should die, is profoundly 
mysterious. A mournful calamity, it would have 
proved, if wasted by disease, or from fearful injuries, 
his noble heart had ceased to beat, and his manly 
form had sunk to rest amid the tears of a stricken fa- 
mily, and of a bereaved nation, but that he should die 
by an assassin's hand, by a felon's hate, is overwhelm- 
ingly appalling. We are transfixed with horror. 

For the first time in the annals of our country, the 
awful crkne has been committed of the assassination 
of our highest ruler. Other lands have witnessed 
such crimes. Ancient and modern history afibrd 
many instances — but the pages of American history 
have never been darkened, until now, with the record 
of so black a crime. 

It is difiicult to find in -the past a parallel to this 
atrocious deed. One instance, having some resem- 
blance to the present, we discover in the closing quar- 
ter of the sixteenth century. On the 10th of July, 
1584, William the Silent, Chief Magistrate of the 
United Netherlands, perished by the pistol of an as- 
sassin. The territory over which his authority was 
acknowledged was small contrasted with that over 
which the authority of President Lincoln was recog- 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 9 

nized — ^it was not larger, in fact, than the States of 
Delaware and Maryland combined, and contained a 
population of only one million and a half of people ; 
and yet, in the momentous interests, both political 
and religious, which were at stake in the war then 
raging, in. the important stage of his country's strug- 
gle, at which William the Silent was murdered, and 
especially in the traits of character of the Washing- 
ton of the sixteenth century, as he has been called, 
there is much that would afford instructive comparison. 
But time will not allow, and the occasion does not re- 
quire that the resemblances should be traced. 

I am not qualified to give my hearers an elaborate 
delineation of the great statesman whose death we de- 
plore. It is no easy task to portray with just discri 
mination his character. Abraham Lincoln was, in 
many respects, a remarkable man. Of humble birth, 
subjected to privations, and accustomed to severe toil 
from early youth, yet by the inherent force of his 
character, and by faithful improvement of meagre ad- 
vantages, he rose by degrees to the high place of honor 
and of influence which he so ably filled at the time of 
his death. 

His life adds another to the many examples, con- 
firming the adage that great men are born in adver- 
sity. 

He was eminently a man of the people. ■ His sj'm- 
pathies were enlisted always on their behalf; their 



10 THE DEATH OF 

elevation, their success, and their happiness were 
greatly desired by him, and in his own character and 
life he illustrated the essential dignity of man apart 
from the circumstances of birth or of wealth, inde- 
pendently of all conventional distinctions. 

Self-educated, his mind was disciplined by severe 
study, and was enriched in no small degree with ge- 
neral as well as professional literature. He was dis- 
tinguished for sound common sense, and for the practi- 
cal cast of his mind. In his writings and his addresses 
he was plain, direct and simple; there was no attempt 
at eloquence, and no striving after an immediate 
effect, but his language was always clear and vigorous. 
His illustrations, not unfrequently derived from the 
most humble and familiar sources, were selected, not 
to adorn, but to give point to his speech, and because 
of their fitness to make his meaning clear to the great 
mass of men. 

He Avas a large-hearted man, of tender, kind and 
affectionate spirit; the warmest impulses of his heart 
were toward the humble and the neglected — toward 
the obscure and the helpless. The sick and wounded 
soldiers — the widows and the fatherless, made such 
bj^ the ravages of war — and the poor freedmen found 
in him a compassionate friend. The range of his sym- 
pathies was almost boundless, for the unintelligent as 
well as the intelligent creation shared in their exercise. 
If ever there was a man to whom the sentiment of 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 11 

Wordsworth would apply, and from whose lips the 
words of the poet would most naturally fall, that man 
was Abraham Lincoln: — 

" Thanks to the human heart, 

Thanks to its tenderness, its joys and fears, 
To me the meanest flower that blows can give 
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears." 

His moral convictions were deep and powerful — he 
earnestly sought to discern what was right, and was 
firm and unyielding in what he believed to be his 
duty. Honesty, uprightness, and singleness of pur- 
pose were pre-eminent elements of his character. 
Armed with these, he was able to meet, and to baffle 
the intrigue, subtle policy, and cunning diplomacy of 
the arch traitor, through whose wicked counsels and 
determined will the rebellion has so long resisted the 
armies of the Eepublic. 

The existence in him of a religious spirit, the exer- 
cise of a calm religious trust in the most critical pe- 
riods of the war, and a devout recognition of God in 
the results which have been secured; these traits of 
his character, and their frequent expression, which 
have been so well known to us, have, at length, been 
recognized by eminent writers abroad. 

The London Spectator, in an article on President 
Lincoln, referring to Macaulay's celebrated comparison 
of Washington to John Hampden, says : " If that high 
eulogium was fully earned, as it was, by the first great 



12 THE DEATH OF 

President of the United States, we doubt if it has not 
been as well earned by the Illinois peasant proprietor 
and village lawyer, whom, by some divine inspiration 
or providence, the Rej^ublican caucus of 1860 substi- 
tuted for their nominee for the President's chair." It 
adds, speaking of his Inaugural of the 4th of March, 
that it contains "a grasp of principle, a dignity of man- 
ner, and a solemnity of purpose, which would have 
been unworthy of neither Hampden nor of Cromwell, 
while his gentleness and generosity of feeling toward 
his foes was almost greater than we should expect 
from either of them." 

Suffer me in this connection to refresh your memo- 
ries with the concluding paragraphs of his second In- 
augural. How solemn do the words appear now, that 
their author is no more ! 

" Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that 
this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. 
Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth 
piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years 
of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop 
of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another 
drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand 
years ago, so still it must be said, that 'the judgments 
of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' 

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with 
firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, 
let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 13 

up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have 
borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans; 
to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a 
lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." 

I have no desire to indulge in indiscriminate eulogy 
of President Lincoln. That he had faults I do not 
deny, but some of those traits of his character which 
were deemed to be, and were proclaimed to be faults, 
were not really such. 

His jocoseness — his readiness to draw from a seem- 
ingly inexhaustible fund of anecdote — were not evi- 
dences of indifference to the solemn interests of the 
country, but were often the necessary rebound of his 
elastic spirit long overborne by the cares and respon- 
sibilities of his office. The very same pecuharity dis- 
tinguished the illustrious soldier and statesman to 
whom I have already referred. Of Abraham Lincoln 
this may be justly said — "He was a man, take him 
for all in all, we shall not look upon his like again." 

From this brief review of his character, from this 
imperfect tribute to his worth, I turn to consider some 
of the thoughts which our national bereavement sug- 
gests. 

I. God, in his infinite mercy, seems to have prepared 
us in an especial manner to bear this terrible stroke 
of affliction. I call to your remembrance a remark 
which was made from this place on last Sunday night. 
Referring to the outbursts of jubilant emotions which 



14 THE DEATH OF 

followed the announcement of the storming, by our 
gallant men, of the enemy's works Jin front of Peters- 
burg, of the utter rout of the rebels, and the capture 
of their boasted impregnable capital; referring to the 
extraordinary manifestations of feehngs which these 
stirring events called forth — the copious tears, the 
friendly greetings of strangers, the passionate embrace 
of friends, and the glorious songs of praise to Al- 
mighty God, which ascended from the thronged streets, 
from the centres of business and of wealth, and from 
the temples of devotion — I suggested that the relief 
afforded by these signal successes, to feelings which 
had long been pent up in the breasts of the people, 
feelings which they had not dared to give freest ex- 
pression to before, would prove to be invigorating, 
filling the lungs with moral oxygen of which they had 
long been deprived, and imparting moral tone and 
health to mind and body, and that we should be pre- 
pared to bear with greater firmness whatever of dis- 
appointment or of trial might await us in future. In 
this opportunity for fullest joy, God was granting us 
release from the intense strain upon our nerves, and 
from the severe pressure to which our spirits had been 
subjected through years of fearful and bloody war. 
Who would have thought that in one short week we 
should be prostrated by the stroke of so grievous an 
affliction, and be overwhelmed by the sorrow of so 
dire a calamity? 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 15 

But can we not discern the evidence of the mercy 
of God, in withholding this most bitter cup of grief 
until success had awakened joy in our breasts, in 
shielding us from this mighty blow until strength had 
been imparted to bear it, in not permitting the dense 
clouds and darkness to gather around us until we had 
realized that the end was not far off, and had caught, 
through opening vistas, glimpses of the glory that was 
soon to overspread the land? Had this calamity be- 
fallen us at any previous stage of the war, it might 
have paralyzed, where now it has only stunned us; 
it might have crushed, where now it has only shocked 
usl; and instead of the agony which now finds relief in 
tears, there might have been a tearless agony, such 
as consumes the strength with inward fever and often- 
times ends in despair. 

So far as human wisdom merely may judge, if the 
murder of our beloved President had been consum- 
mated on the eighth of November, or the fourth of 
March last, it would have utterly confounded us : uni- 
versal distrust would have prevailed, and the arm of 
authority paralyzed by the shock, treason would have 
lifted up its frightful head into the light, and would 
have wrought with impunity its horrid deeds of fire 
and blood. Our condition as a nation might have 
been that which the United Netherlands in similar 
circumstances was represented to be — "a dismasted 
hulk reeling through the tempest." But God inter- 



I 



16 THE DEATH OF 

posed his mighty arm, and hath verified, in om- na- 
tional experience, that promise which beUevers have 
found true in their personal experiences — "As thy 
days, so shall thy strength be." 

II. God teaches us by this solemn providence, the 
sacredness of the Chief Magistracy of the Kepublic. 

That civil government is of God, an ordinance of 
divine appointment, needs no labored argument to 
prove. Whatever of doubt or of misconception, on 
this point, may have existed in the minds of the people 
in former years, the events of the past four years 
must have completely removed. 

The exigencies of the nation, the perils which have 
environed it, and the sacrifices of treasure and of blood 
that have been called for, have compelled men to 
examine anew, and to decide the question for them- 
selves. The desperate assaults of treason against the 
unity of the Republic, the deadly blows which have 
been directed at its foundation principles, and the tre- 
mendous shock which its institutions have suffered — 
these have deepened the conviction, not only that 
civil government is an ordinance of God, but also that 
that form of government which here exists, is in har- 
mony with the will of God, and is to be upheld and 
its authority vindicated at whatever sacrifice of money 
or of men. The conviction is thoroughly ingrained 
in the minds of the American people, that this Go- 
vernment, as a sacred legacy bequeathed to them by 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 17 

their fathers, and as bearmg the signature of the Di- 
vine approbation, is to be preserved unimpaired in its 
integrity, and to be defended to the last extremity. 

But are we as intelligently persuaded that the ad- 
ministrators of the functions of the Government are 
"ministers of God ?" — that, in the same sense in which 
civil government is an ordinance of God, the "powers 
that be" are ordained of God? Do we manifest that 
reverence to the magistrate that we do of obedience 
to the authority of the laws? Surely, the highest 
officer of a free people, the Chief Magistrate of a pow- 
erful nation, ought to be invested with a dignity and 
an honor in the minds of the people. How profoundly 
impressed with the sacredness of the office, and of the 
person of a great ruler David felt, his relation to Saul, 
king of Israel, and his indignation against his sup- 
posed murderer, plainly disclose. "How wast thou 
not afraid to stretch forth thy hand to destroy the 
Lord's anointed?" As though the simple knowledge 
that he had been set apart to his office by the Lord, 
should have guarded Saul from the hand of violence. 
The absence of a becoming respect to our highest 
officers, has been painfully felt by intelligent observers. 
We have made the securing of stations which they 
fill the rewards of faithful services to party, and have 
selected men without much concern as to their capa- 
city or fitness for high positions. We have recognized 
the authority of our rulers, but we have not enter- 



18 THE DEATH OF 

tained towards them that deep regard which their 
exalted position and rej)resentative character justly 
entitled them. We have not thrown around them 
any guards of protection, deeming such j)recautions as 
not only unnecessary, but as derogatory to the intel- 
ligence and virtue of the people, and as a satire upon 
the practical workings of a Repubhcan government. 

We have been unrestrained in our criticisms of the 
opinions and measures of our public men. In the 
heat of party strife, we have heaped upon them ob- 
loquy and reproach. We have not spared the highest 
in authority from ridicule and scorn. Our honored 
President, now sleeping in death, had his full share 
of harsh criticism and unmerited abuse. Within the 
past few weeks, there have not been wanting evi- 
dences of divisions among his supposed friends, and 
preparations making to arrest whatever was opposed 
to their ideas concerning the policies which should be 
pursued in the settlement of the extraordinary diffi- 
culties of the passing time. 

It is not sufficiently borne in mind that the office 
of Chief Magistrate is one of vast responsibility, and 
that he who would administer it wisely, must look at 
every aspect of grave questions, the decisions of which 
may influence the destinies of the nation for weal or 
wo for succeeding generations. 

But, as if to recall to our memories a forgotten 
truth — as if to impress anew, with indelible lines. 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 19 

upon our minds the sacredness, the inviolable dignity 
which should be associated with the Chief Magistracy 
of the Republic, God has summoned us to mourn over 
the prostrate form of our honored Chief, slain by a 
murderer's hand. If a noble and generous nature — 
if private virtues — if beneficial public acts could give 
security from an assassin's power, then Abraham 
Lincoln would have lived to-day. But the worth of 
his personal character, his sense of personal safety, 
the security which exalted official station is suj)posed 
to impart, were all in vain. 

The manner of his death suggests lessons which 
should not be unheeded by the nation. Precautionary 
measures of some sort must be devised to insure the 
personal safety of the Chief Executive of the United 
• States. In view of the important interests placed in 
his hands, and of the disastrous results which might 
ensue from the violent removal of the nation's head, 
this is demanded. We need to remember, also, the 
danger there is in the unrestrained indulgence of a 
spirit of criticism in regard to the motives and actions 
of our rulers — of weakening the influence of their 
public character, and secretly undermining their au- 
thority. Liberty is not license of speech ; the proper 
exercise of criticism in a free government, does not 
include "speaking evil of dignities." 

He who has been so unexpectedly called to this 
great office, is worthy of confidence and support. His 



20 THE DEATH OF 

past life, his unswerving loyalty and his self-sacrificing 
patriotism are pledges that he will not disappoint the 
just expectations of the American people. God grant 
him length of days and a prosperous administration. 

III. In this deed of crime, the ultimate test has 
been applied to the strength and stability of this Go- 
vernment. 

Our rejoicings in one respect have been premature. 
We have been too hasty in the conclusions we have 
drawn from the recent splendid victories of our armies. 
We flattered ourselves that the nation was wholly 
saved, that the highest test had been applied to our 
form of government. We rested in the conviction 
that treason had exhausted its power for evil, that 
the Temple of Liberty had survived the assaults of 
rebel foes, and that henceforth the principles of self- 
government would every where prevail, and free insti- 
tutions founded upon and sustained by the intelligent 
will of the people, would every where arise. We have 
not concealed our joy over the failure of the predictions 
and the disappointment of the hopes of the enemies 
of this Government in foreign lands. We have not 
failed to improve the opportunity to dwell with com- 
placency upon this aspect of affairs, and our words of 
exultation are bemg borne across the waters to-day — 
"Aha, prophets of evil! Where now are your vatici- 
nations of ruin? Falsifiers of the spirit, purpose and 
power of the people, where now are your confident 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN". 21 

predictions of national weakness and of defeat? Li- 
bellers of a free people, struggling for the supremacy 
of law, for the triumph of order and liberty, where 
now are your assurances of the disintegration and 
overthrow of the Republic? Baseless as the fabric 
of a vision, they leave no trace behind." In the con- 
sciousness of our strength, we have proclaimed that 
the thrones of Europe would totter to their fall, and 
that the privileges of aristocracies would be swept 
away by the tempests of wrath of a long-suflfering 
people, aroused to put forth their invincible power, 
and encouraged by the glorious achievements which 
we have wrought, and in which we have given proof 
of the strength and stability of a Republican form of 
government. 

But in the midst of our gratulations — in the hour 
of greatest confidence, we have been brought to face, 
Avithout the slightest note of warning, an unthought- 
of peril. An event which would lead in other coun- 
tries to revolutions or to changes of a most radical 
character; an event wholly unprecedented in our his- 
tory, and which, familiar as we have been with daring 
crimes during this conflict, we could not have believed 
rebels would dare attempt, has occurred, through 
which the nation has been deprived of its leader, and 
has been exposed to whatever of confusion or of em- 
barrassment successful conspiracy could work. But, 
in this new peril to our Government no signs of weak- 



22 THE DEATH OF 

ness appear. There is a momentary jar of the suj^er- 
structure; but the machinery moves on with its wonted 
regularity and power. The foundations are not moved, 
the'pillars are not fallen — the Kepublic stands. It has 
every element of strength, and every provision, under 
the blessing of God, for its perpetuity. Let us take fresh 
encouragement from the fearful test which has been 
applied, that a glorious future awaits our country, and 
that the great principles which distinguish this nation 
are destined to enjoy a world-wide triumph. 

IV. The mystery which shrouds this afflictive dis- 
pensation, should lead us to repose unreserved trust 
in God. 

We cannot fully understand the meaning of this 
calamity; but we may feel an assurance that God 
intends it for the nation's good. His hand has 
appeared in all our past history. From the days of 
our fathers until now — through all the scenes of the 
Revolution — through all the privations and sacri- 
fices of that heroic struggle — through all the inter- 
vening history of the Union down to the outbreak of 
the rebellion, the Lord has been with us, and His 
favor has encompassed us as with a shield. He has 
not withdraAvn His hand from us during the trying 
scenes of this present bloody drama, but has often in- 
terposed in our behalf, and granted deliverance in 
times of peril. We may safely trust Him in this dark 
hour. He will not leave us to perish, after that He 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN; 23 

has given us so many tokens of good. The principle 
for which we have contended so persistently through 
seasons of gloom and disaster, He will not suffer to 
fail. The sacrifices of treasure and of blood, the blood 
of patriot-soldiers and patriol>statesmen so freely of- 
fered. He will not permit to be wasted. The martyr 
blood of our revered Chief Magistrate is not shed in 
vain. God will make clear in His own time. His pur- 
pose in this sorrowful event. Let us not murmur nor 
complain; but let us await with calm resignation the 
revelations which He shall make of his sovereign will. 
God is his own interpreter, and He will make it plain. 
Brethren and friends, there is sorrow in the Na- 
tion's Capital to-day — in the high place of authority — 
in the house of the Nation's Chief Euler there is bit- 
ter anguish. A family weeps for the loss of a hus- 
band — a father cruelly slain. But they weep not 
alone. The tears of millions fall as rain; for the 
whole land mourns. The lowly and the exalted — the 
poor and the rich — the black and the white — the 
emancipated and the free born — the private citizen 
and the magistrate — the soldier and the statesman — 
the old men and the children weep this day, for all 
have lost a friend. Within a narrow coffin lies the 
inanimate form of our loved, trusted, and honored 
President. We shall see his face and form no more. 
Spirit of the departed! we will ever cherish the re- 
membrance of thee. Thy thoughtful brow — thy face 



24 THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

illumined with intelligence and love — thy form un- 
gainly, but within which lodged a loving, generous, 
patriotic heart. — the life which thou didst give to 
thy country — these can never he forgotten. Thy 
name will stand enrolled among the names of the il- 
lustrious of all ages — thy memory will be enshrined 
in the affections of a grateful people through all time, 
thy virtues forever fragrant, will j)rove incentives 
to the love of truth — to fidelity to duty, and to con- 
secration of life to country and to God — to the youth 
of all lands. 



LB My 13 



I 



